Chocolate
by Shadow Of Grace
Summary: "Life is like chocolate. Too dark and it becomes bitter enough to hurt your mouth, too light and it becomes too sweet to eat." "I thought you hated chocolate?" "I do." OCX?, NO Shizaya. T for violence, language, and turtles.
1. Chapter 1

There was an anomaly on the streets of Ikebukuro that night. Not Shizuo Heiwajima throwing around a vending machine. Not someone falling from a building. Not even a kidnapping was occurring that night, which could have been considered an abnormality in and of itself. No, the disturbance amongst the colorless throngs of people was much more subtle, almost unnoticeable from a distance.

Her name was Ciara Deirdre-Lynn Kathleen O`Neill. She was very proud of her name, which was as long as her mother could make it; the woman had decided that her youngest child should have a special name, and she hadn't been able to decide on just a given and middle name. Everything about Ciara stood out, and not necessarily in a good way. Her fiery auburn hair was a tangled mess of curls that reached past her waist with long bangs that made her scowl slightly each time they brushed into her eyes. Despite her twenty-two years of life, she hadn't managed to get any taller than five foot one, which left her considerably shorter than the other people who strolled the streets at eleven PM. She had a round face spattered with freckles, which only added to her childish air; on a bad day she could easily be mistaken for a petulant eight-year-old. Though her appearance alone was odd enough compared to the relatively boring and repetitive features of the Ikebukuro residents, her choice of clothing was what really drew the oddest glances. She was clad in an over-sized green knitted sweater with unraveling sleeves that reached several inches past her fingers and a hem that fell nearly to her knees. The sweater nearly obscured her grass-stained and baggy jeans, tucked into mud caked and well-worn work boots.

She seemed completely oblivious to the disdainful looks cast her way, grey-green eyes instead focused on the neon lights and towering buildings. Ciara was born and raised in the small Irish town of Caher, her parents were farmers and she had five brothers. Needless to say the girl didn't spend much time worrying over her clothing choices when she was busy getting then muddy and tattered anyway.

Nearly hidden on the roof of a building sat the hunched form of Izaya Orihara. The small set of binoculars held to his face glinted slightly in the light of one of the glowing signs, casting a shadow over his face. He was staring intently at the red-haired girl, eyes narrowed and face twisted into a smirk. Yes, she was certainly different from the rest of his beloved humans, from her expressions to the way she walked, but what really caught Izaya's attention was her resemblance to someone he knew well; or rather _had _known.

With a chuckle Izaya pushed himself to his feet, slipping the binoculars into the pocket of his jacket as he turned away. Ikebukuro had been getting almost boring lately, and a plan was quickly forming in the man's head about how to spice things up.

**A/N:**

**Grace: My first Durarara! story! This idea has been poking me for a while, and since I do so love OC in Ikebukuro stories, I had to contribute something. I suppose I should apologize for the rather bland and short opening, but I figured it was better to get the introduction out of the way sooner rather than later. I would also like to say that flames and accusations of Ciara being a Mary-Sue are not appreciated, it's not like I can have her go about being as boring and colorless as the regular people waltzing about, but I do appreciate comments and suggestions about ways to keep my OC from straying into Mary-Suedom. Also a thanks goes out to my awesome Beta, PhantomPrussia!**

**Phantom: *bows***

**Grace: *claps sarcastically* Ahem. The next chapter will be out as soon as possible to make up for the shortness of this one. Thanks for reading up to this point, and remember, reviews make an Author's life suck less!**


	2. Author's Note

**Grace:**

**Hey everyone.**

**I'd like to start off with an apology for all of my readers. All of you really do mean a lot to me, every single hit on this story makes me smile. The faves and follows never fail to improve my mood, even when I'm having the shittiest of days, and if I could hug every one of you I would. You reviewers, though. . . you guys really are the ones that inspire me to get off my procrastinating and incredibly lazy ass to get some writing done, and every single one literally makes me dance around like a lunatic; my cousins must think I need to be locked up at this point.**

**Unfortunately, life is a bitch – as I'm sure you all know. After dealing with some rather severe bullying problems and more than one hospital visit, I've ended up moving. Now I'm in a different state entirely, and though things are quite a bit easier for me now, I'm still dealing with physical and mental after effects. Now, please note that I am ****NOT ****fishing for sympathy, I haven't a doubt in my mind that I can't even begin to fathom the troubles that other people have. At this point I simply feel obligated to my amazing readers to explain why the hell it's taking me so long to update.**

**Now that I'm finally getting settled properly and on the road to a decent recovery, I'd like to pick up my writing again. After reading through my assorted stories, I was left utterly disgusted by the all-round quality – or lack thereof – of nearly every chapter. Frankly, I'm rather surprised that no one has pointed out the shoddiness of my writing yet. **

**More to the point, I've decided to do a full re-write of every story. Needless to say, this is no small undertaking, especially with the nearly two dozen other fanfics that I haven't quite gotten around to posting. In order to make everything a bit easier for me, I've made an entirely new account. All re-written fics will be uploaded as I get to them, and I promise that each and every story I've published thus far WILL be gotten to eventually, though I can't say quite when. A link for my new account (Pen name Forsaken Paradise) can be found on my profile.**

**Again, I would like to thank each of my readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers. All of you really have brought a bit of sunshine to my day – ironic given that it's storming at the moment – and I wish I could thank each of you individually, but unfortunately typing isn't very easy for me at the moment. Please do keep an eye out for the new version of this story, and I'll probably post a quick notice on here when I upload the fixed version. At the risk of being repetitive, thank you all for your support of my writing up to this point, and I hope to hear from you guys again. **

**Lots of love,**

**Grace.**


	3. Revised Version!

**A/N**

**Grace: Hallo everyone! I'm finally here to announce that the revised version of this story is out, and with it comes a new chapter! About damn time, I suppose. This version will be taken down in three to four days, because I don't want to confuse any new readers with multiple copies of the same fic. Anywho, the links for both the new version and my new account will be posted below, and I hope to see all my readers, reviewers, and followers on my new account.**

**Hugs and bunnies*,**

**Grace.**

***not the fuzzy and adorable bunnies. I'm talking enraged killer bunnies like that awesome little guy in Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Just to keep you guys on your toes. ;)**

**New account: **Forsaken Paradise – u/4653133/Forsaken-Paradise

**Revised version of this story: **Chocolate - s/9188479/1/

**(the links are also on my profile, because FF is a bitch and doesn't seem to want to actually show the damn links on the story.)**


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